Family farmhouse
Pend has completed the renovation and extension of Whinstone Brae, a rural farmhouse in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south west of Scotland. Set at the top of a gentle hill, the farmhouse has been in the same family for two generations; the clients’ parents bought it as a working farm after emigrating from Ireland in the early 1900s. Two generations have since grown up around the property, with the third and now fourth generations regularly returning to the house for holidays.
The brief sought to sensitively adapt the property to support the larger family and a contemporary rural lifestyle, safeguarding Whinstone Brae’s place in the family for generations to come. Crucially, the late 19th-century main house was to be left largely unaltered with any additions retaining its character and sense of hierarchy.
The existing farmhouse has a sophisticated 3-bay frontage, providing an outlook across the rolling hills of neighbouring farms, which is flanked by two stone gables, orientated on an east-west axis to address the prevailing coastal wind experienced by the elevated position. The approach to the property has three principal elevations: initially the formal southern facade from the bottom of the long, winding driveway; then as the driveway gets closer it turns to face the eastern elevation which is defined by a single punched opening through a solid stone wall; before finally wrapping around to the western side where the day-to-day entrance is found.
To the rear lay a service wing, originally built as the maid’s quarters. This wing contained a small vestibule, a cramped kitchen with restrictive head height and a dark living room with just a single opening in its thick masonry walls. Whilst small, uninsulated and impeded by a level change, the space remained well used by the family and inhabited a sense of charm.
Without altering the main wing of the farmhouse, the architects have created significantly more living space in the cherished family home by partially rebuilding the former maids' quarter, creating an open social space that links the farmhouse and its new gabled wing. The reworked layout replaces these cramped spaces with a generous connected kitchen and living space, where the family spend most of their time together, whilst retaining a sense of the character and charm of the more informal part of the property.
The northernmost wall of the former maid’s quarter, complete with its large wood burning stove and chimney was retained, providing support to the existing roof and the first floor maid’s room within, accessed via a quirky narrow staircase and now used as sleeping accommodation for the younger members of the family.
The east and west elevations and roof of the former service wing were rebuilt, allowing its plan and relationship to the main house to be reworked. To the west, the rebuilt elevation, clad in timber panelling, introduces a series of windows which overlook the principal entrance and provide light into the enlarged kitchen. To the east, large sliding doors connect the living room to a new east-facing terrace, opening previously cut-off views across the surrounding Galloway Hills.
The new timber-frame addition takes the form of a single east–west gabled volume, following the architectural grain of the main house, as well as an outhouse, a barn and the adjacent farm buildings. The aligning new volume reinstates a symmetry that had been lost as the service wing was altered over time.
This gabled volume contains a covered entrance, boot room, utility room and shower room with WC providing a practical transition between the outdoors and the main living spaces, suited to family members returning from long days out enjoying the beautiful but often muddy Scottish countryside. At the other end, a family-sized dining room looks north towards the adjacent protected woodland. This is accessed directly from the kitchen-living area, distinguishing the space from the service spaces and connecting it to the home’s social spaces.
Together, the three elements form a sequence from old to new: the historic farmhouse, the retained and rebuilt maid’s quarter, and the new gabled addition.
The material palette draws directly from the buildings and landscape around the site. The extension is constructed in local grey whinstone, matching the stone that characterises the old farmhouse, agricultural buildings and dry-stone dyke walls which characterised the area. All stone removed during construction was reused wherever possible, supplemented by whinstone painstakingly sourced from local yards and a small quantity of granite where additional material was required. The use of the deep stone walls balances the larger openings which have been introduced enabling the property to maintain its sense of solidity and shelter.
Red sandstone, used for the quoins, openings and ornament on the main house, is used more selectively on the extension. Rather than reproducing the detailing of the original building, it appears as a secondary material, identifying the new works as a contemporary addition and allowing the farmhouse to retain its place as the principal element of the composition. Pieces of timber, cut on the site’s former sawmill, were retained and used decoratively.
Above the stone datum of the exterior walls, the upper part of the extension is clad in timber, stained a bespoke dark colour to match the slate roof. The colour was developed by Pend alongside a local supplier Tiny Temple and provides a material connection to both the roofscape and the woodland which rises above Whinstone Brae to the north. The roof is finished in slate, while windows and doors are oak internally and externally, excluding the aluminium-framed sliding doors.
Existing fabric has been deliberately exposed at points where the new work meets the old. A stone lintel above a new window is positioned below the head of the opening so that it remains visible from inside, while stonework continues behind the jamb of a glazed door connecting the two structures, both acting as a reminder of the masonry work past and present.
The clients designed the kitchen themselves and it was built in collaboration with a local joiner to incorporate a chest of drawers from the family’s collection as an island and a press unit as additional storage. Salvaged farmhouse doors were also reused and the family’s wood-burning stove was refurbished and reinstated in the new living room.
Rather than treating Whinstone Brae as a fixed object, Pend’s approach takes advantage of the home’s history of incremental alterations. By preserving the original house, focusing works on the historically adapted maid’s quarters and introducing a new, subservient volume alongside it, the project has created a space suited to contemporary lifestyle without displacing the character and memories that have accumulated around the well-loved home. The house can continue to adapt as it passes to the next generation, while keeping the farmhouse at the centre of the composition.
